Restructuring the Core Artist Experience for a Scalable Art Platform

Led the strategic restructuring of MutualArt’s core artist experience, shifting the platform from fragmented content navigation to an intent-based ecosystem for discovery, research, and collecting.

Role

UX/UI Design

Project Overview

Context

MutualArt is an art data platform for collectors, galleries, and art enthusiasts, with around 1M monthly users, including 115K premium subscribers. Artist pages are one of the platform’s primary entry points for discovering artworks, researching artists, and tracking the art market. Over time, the experience became fragmented across disconnected tabs with overlapping content, while competing user intents - buying, researching, and learning, - had no clear path through the navigation, making discovery especially difficult for new users.

Role & Goals

UX/UI Design, Information Architecture, User Research.
Led the restructuring of the artist experience, including user research, information architecture, interaction design, and collaboration with stakeholders and developers.

Outcomes

100%

Task success rate in usability testing

Up from 25% - 67% on the old artist page

30sec

Average task completion time

Down from ~2 minutes

Information Architecture – Restructured navigation around user intent rather than content categories, reducing discovery time and informing the broader site redesign.
Design System – Established reusable navigation, card, and content patterns that improved consistency across the product and informed the broader site redesign.

Business Objective

UX Approach

Accelerate client conversion

🎯 Immediate insights & value through landing pages & visualizations

Reduce training costs

🎯 Simplified workflows & streamlined navigation

Enhance sales demo effectiveness

🎯 Improved data visualizations to showcase sustainability insights

Ensure frustration-free user flows

🎯 Task-oriented design for a smoother, intuitive experience

Before

After

Research Activities

Analyzed artist page usage and navigation patterns
Conducted usability testing with 17 users across the existing experience and two redesign concepts
Reviewed discovery journeys for buying, researching, and learning about artists
Mapped content relationships and navigation dependencies across artist pages
Aligned business, content, and user goals through stakeholder workshops

Usage data revealed a mismatch between navigation structure and user behavior.

Artworks

30%

Auction Results

20%

Biography

17%

Exhibitions

For Sale

Articles

0.9%

Signatures

1.4%

Performance

0.7%

Monthly avg unique views per tab as % of total artist page visits · Apr-Sep 2025, Mixpanel

3 tabs drove 67% of all visits. The remaining 6 tabs collectively accounted for less than 9% of engagement. Performance – containing price history, auction turnover, and comparable artist data, – attracted less than 1% of visitors, suggesting that some of the platform's most valuable market insights were difficult to discover.

Key findings

01 Users arrived with goals, not categories

Users came to artist pages with specific objectives: discovering artworks, researching market value, or learning about an artist. The navigation reflected content categories rather than these goals, making it difficult to know where to start.

02 Content placement did not match user expectations

Users struggled to predict where information would be located. Artworks for sale, auction results, market insights, and artist information were distributed across multiple sections, increasing effort and causing frequent dead ends.

03 Discovery and research experiences were blended together

Current listings, historical sales data, market analysis, and artist information appeared side by side without clear separation. Users often followed the wrong path for their objective and missed relevant content.

Navigation Restructure

Before: 9 tabs by content type

Overview

Artworks

30%

Auction Results

20%

Biography

17%

For Sale

Exhibitions

Signatures

1.4%

Performance

0.7%

Articles

0.9%

→

After: 3 groups by user intent

Buy

Gallery artworks

Upcoming Auction Lots

Research

Auction results

Market performance

Price history

Learn

Biography

Exhibitions

Articles & Signatures

design directions

Two concepts were explored. Both aimed to improve discoverability and navigation, but approached the problem differently: a simplified navigation model versus a dashboard-based overview.

Option 1

Simplified content-based navigation

Familiar structure
Reduced number of tabs
Separate destination pages, such as exhibitions
Multiple carousels remain

Option 2

Dashboard-based experience

Goal-oriented structure
Key content surfaced immediately
Reduced navigation effort
Entry point adapts to user intent

Option 1

Option 2

Initial Hypothesis

We believed the second option would better serve users because it:

Aligned with users' goals rather than content categories
Surfaced key information immediately instead of requiring users to choose the correct tab
Reduced navigation effort and cognitive load
Helped less experienced users discover relevant content without understanding the platform structure first

usability testing

Existing artist page

Six participants, most of them art collectors and new to MutualArt, completed 5 tasks across the main artist page sections. While users found the platform credible and data-rich, navigation complexity consistently prevented smooth task completion. Most bypassed artist-specific tabs entirely, defaulting to global search – breaking out of the artist context and losing their place.

Selected tasks

Find gallery artwork

33% · 1:55

Find past auction results

25% · 1:46

Find exhibitions

50% · 1:25

Key changes after testing

An initial dashboard concept (v1) was tested with 4 participants. Results were mixed: users responded positively to the overview, but continued to struggle with content overlap and multiple levels of navigation. This led to a significant IA revision and several deliberate trade-offs:

Artworks scoped to for-sale works only
Auction Results limited to past sales
Performance was separated into its own tab to reduce the depth and complexity of the Research section
Cross-page links added to bridge gaps for users who expected broader content within each section

Redesign v2

The revised prototype was tested with 5 participants. All core tasks were completed successfully. Users stayed within the artist context throughout and navigation confidence was significantly higher. The overview was described as a strong entry point for deeper exploration.

Selected tasks

Find gallery artwork

100% · ~0:30

Find past auction results

100% · ~0:20

Find exhibitions

100% · ~0:15

Performance and Exhibitions were tested separately with additional 4 more experienced participants through open discussion during the prototype test, rather than structured tasks. Both sections were significantly redesigned: Performance with clearer charts and a new Repeat Sales feature, Exhibitions with added analytics to help users assess artist value.

"

The overview is very powerful.

Alicia, artist & gallery manager

final design

1. Overview as entry point

The overview surfaces the most important artist information in one place, allowing users to begin exploring without first choosing a section.

Key content surfaced on landing
Reduced need to choose the correct tab
Users stayed within artist context throughout

Clickable sections

Each overview block is fully clickable and links directly to the relevant tab, encouraging deeper exploration without requiring users to navigate manually.

Simplified labels

Artwork labels were reduced to "Gallery" and "Auction" to make the distinction immediately clear - addressing a key pain point from legacy testing where users couldn't differentiate work types.

Performance data for all users

High-level market performance metrics are surfaced on the overview for all users, not just Premium. The decision was made to demonstrate platform value upfront and give every user a reason to engage more deeply.

2. Navigation reorganized around intent

The global tab navigation was restructured from content categories to user goals. Each tab now maps to a clear intent, making it immediately obvious where to go.

Before:

After:

3. Market insights redesigned

Market Performance and Exhibitions were redesigned to help users better evaluate an artist's market activity and visibility.

Performance before:

Performance after:

Repeat Sales – new feature:

Exhibitions before:

Exhibitions after:

Project Impact

Usability testing showed substantial improvements across all core navigation tasks. Users completed every tested scenario successfully, found information faster, and remained within the artist context throughout the journey.

Improved task completion

Task success rate

25-67% → 100%

Average task completion time

~2 min → under 30 sec

Users stayed within artist context

rarely → consistently

Business value

Clearer entry point for new users, reducing onboarding friction
Better visibility of Premium market insights surfaced to all users
Established reusable patterns that accelerated development of subsequent features including Repeat Sales and exhibition analytics
Intent-based IA became the foundation for the subsequent global site navigation redesign

User feedback

Testing confirmed significantly higher navigation confidence across all user types.

Learnings & Next Steps

While the platform already contained valuable content and analytics, improving discoverability had a direct impact on how users experienced the platform's value. Multiple rounds of testing helped uncover navigation challenges that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, ultimately leading to a structure that better aligned with users' goals.

Restructuring the Core Artist Experience for a Scalable Art Platform

Led the strategic restructuring of MutualArt’s core artist experience, shifting the platform from fragmented content navigation to an intent-based ecosystem for discovery, research, and collecting.

Role

UX/UI Design

Project Overview

Context

Role & Goals

UX/UI Design, Information Architecture, User Research.Led the restructuring of the artist experience, including user research, information architecture, interaction design, and collaboration with stakeholders and developers.

Outcomes

100%

Task success rate in usability testing

Up from 25% - 67% on the old artist page

30sec

Average task completion time

Down from ~2 minutes

Before

After

Research Activities

Usage data revealed a mismatch between navigation structure and user behavior.

Monthly avg unique views per tab as % of total artist page visits · Apr-Sep 2025, Mixpanel

Key findings

01

Users arrived with goals, not categories

Users came to artist pages with specific objectives: discovering artworks, researching market value, or learning about an artist. The navigation reflected content categories rather than these goals, making it difficult to know where to start.

02

Content placement did not match user expectations

Users struggled to predict where information would be located. Artworks for sale, auction results, market insights, and artist information were distributed across multiple sections, increasing effort and causing frequent dead ends.

03

Discovery and research experiences were blended together

Current listings, historical sales data, market analysis, and artist information appeared side by side without clear separation. Users often followed the wrong path for their objective and missed relevant content.

Navigation Restructure

design directions

Two concepts were explored. Both aimed to improve discoverability and navigation, but approached the problem differently: a simplified navigation model versus a dashboard-based overview.

Option 1

Option 2

Initial Hypothesis

We believed the second option would better serve users because it:

usability testing

Existing artist page

Key changes after testing

An initial dashboard concept (v1) was tested with 4 participants. Results were mixed: users responded positively to the overview, but continued to struggle with content overlap and multiple levels of navigation. This led to a significant IA revision and several deliberate trade-offs:

Redesign v2

The revised prototype was tested with 5 participants. All core tasks were completed successfully. Users stayed within the artist context throughout and navigation confidence was significantly higher. The overview was described as a strong entry point for deeper exploration.

"

The overview is very powerful.

final design

1. Overview as entry point

The overview surfaces the most important artist information in one place, allowing users to begin exploring without first choosing a section.

2. Navigation reorganized around intent

The global tab navigation was restructured from content categories to user goals. Each tab now maps to a clear intent, making it immediately obvious where to go.

Before:

After:

3. Market insights redesigned

Market Performance and Exhibitions were redesigned to help users better evaluate an artist's market activity and visibility.

Performance before:

Performance after:

Repeat Sales – new feature:

Exhibitions before:

Exhibitions after:

Project Impact

Usability testing showed substantial improvements across all core navigation tasks. Users completed every tested scenario successfully, found information faster, and remained within the artist context throughout the journey.

Learnings & Next Steps

UX/UI Design, Information Architecture, User Research.
Led the restructuring of the artist experience, including user research, information architecture, interaction design, and collaboration with stakeholders and developers.